The Rural Voice, 2004-05, Page 17and their chore list considerably
shortened, they had plenty of time to
stop and think about what they
wanted to do before rebuilding.
"We checked everything out."
Nancy says.
"We looked into poultry and pigs
and beef," Gary adds.
"(The alterntives were) all
unknown ground and we still loved
dairy," Nancy says. They also wanted
to stay in dairy to give the option for
the children if they wanted to get into
milking.
"It still took us pretty much until
the new year to decide what we were
going to do," Gary recalls. They
agreed that they would know what
they wanted when they got up three
days in a row with both of them
leaning toward the same option.
Eventually that option was dairy.
Once they decided to stay in
dairy farming, getting a
replacement barn up was first
priority. While Gary had liked the tie -
stall set-up in their old barn, his
knees had taken a beating over the
years so they decided to switch to a
parlour system. Since they didn't
have a lot of experience about
milking parlours, they looked at as
many other barns as they could and
talked to contractors about what they
wanted to do. "The barn kind of
designed itself," Gary recalls.
The options were somewhat
limited by their good fortune. The
cement walls of the old barn were
still stable enough to be reused so
that set parameters for the new barn
though it kept replacement costs
down. It also allowed them to start
building more quickly without the
problem of pouring a lot of concrete
in winter.
Again the goodness of the
community came to the forefront.
"It didn't matter who you talked
to, once people knew what you were
doing, they'd stop and look after you
first," Gary says.
Before they could start
reconstruction they needed a building
permit and before they could get a
building permit they needed
drawings from an engineer.
Engineers are normally booked up
for a month or more but they called
an engineer on a Friday and he
arrived the following Monday. The
drawings were made right away and
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MAY 2004 13